The Favored Heiress
Chapter 731: What do you want by disturbing me early in the morning?

Chapter 731: Chapter 731: What do you want by disturbing me early in the morning?

The next day, Friday, evening.

Li Qiao drove to South Sea International Private School.

She parked the car by the roadside, tapped the steering wheel with one hand, and in less than ten minutes, saw Mo Jue wearing a denim jacket and carrying a backpack of the same color appear.

The car window was half lowered, and when Mo Jue saw Li Qiao, she grinned and, grabbing the strap of her backpack, ran over, "Ancestor, you’re here, have you been waiting long?"

"Get in," Li Qiao gestured to the passenger seat, and Mo Jue scurried around the front of the car and into the vehicle.

She took off her backpack and tossed it onto the back seat, leaned against the chair, and looked around curiously, "Where are we going?"

Li Qiao started the car and merged into the traffic, then glanced at her, "We’re going to the border to meet someone."

Mo Jue nodded, sat up straight, and didn’t ask any further questions.

On the way back to the mansion, the car was very quiet. Mo Jue wasn’t chattering away, but instead took out her iPad from her backpack and started working earnestly on her online homework.

Li Qiao occasionally glanced at her, a smile flashing in her eyes, "Are you getting used to school?"

"Getting used to it," Mo Jue lifted her head excitedly, hugging her iPad and launched into a long speech, "The teachers are really nice, and the students are enthusiastic, and the homeroom teacher even let me sit with the study committee member..."

Approaching a red light, Li Qiao stopped before the pedestrian crossing, turned her head to look at Mo Jue in her denim attire, thinking that she didn’t look out of place at all walking in the campus, "Can you keep up with the senior year curriculum?"

Mo Jue pursed her lips and blinked, "I’m a junior. On the day of enrollment, the head of guidance tested me and said my foundation was weak..."

Li Qiao understood, the green light came on and she stepped on the gas again, glancing in the rear-view mirror as Mo Jue’s question came again, "Who are we going to meet at the border this time?"

"Someone from the Mu Family."

...

That evening, Li Qiao received a call from Li Yan, "Did you pick up Mo Mo?"

"Yeah," Li Qiao sat in the laboratory, casually flipping through a report, "Something came up, I’ll bring her back on Sunday."

Li Yan was silent for a few seconds, licked his back teeth, "What time on Sunday are you coming back? I’ll come to pick you up."

Li Qiao said there was no need and was about to hang up when Li Yan said in a low voice, "Then remember to check her backpack for me."

"What for?" Li Qiao raised her eyebrows in confusion.

Li Yan sounded mysterious, almost laughing, "You’ll know after you check."

Li Qiao didn’t take that to heart.

Even if Mo Jue’s mentality wasn’t mature, she was still an adult.

She had her own privacy and freedom. Moreover, on the way back, Mo Jue had been using her iPad to do homework faithfully, and her acceptance of studying was smoother than they had imagined.

The night was thickening, and the light in the guest room was still on.

Mo Jue was hunched over the table, writing vigorously. Occasionally, she would frown, bite her pen, and flip through books looking for answers, muttering to herself the Chinese fill-in-the-blank question, "Medical quality is a matter of life and death for patients, and saving lives is the bounden duty of medical personnel (being well-prepared). How is that wrong?"

Li Qiao, just opening the door, couldn’t help but chuckle.

The bounden duty of being well-prepared... such a bizarre interpretation of the idiom.

Li Qiao stood by the door, her watch indicating it was eleven o’clock at night, and looked at Mo Jue who was still doing her homework. She silently withdrew from the guest room.

Downstairs, Shang Yu had not yet returned.

Li Qiao went near the floor-to-ceiling window, looking into the inky night, mentally calculating the time.

Her period was mid-month, roughly ten days away.

Whether she was ’lucky’ or not, she would know soon.

...

The next day, Saturday, Li Qiao slowly woke up before seven o’clock.

The light in the master bedroom was dim, and beside her were the steady breaths of a man. They were so close that they could feel each other’s body heat.

Li Qiao glanced sideways, and saw the distinct sleeping features of Shang Yu reflected before her eyes.

She didn’t know what time he had come back last night, but to accompany her to the border, he had been working overtime on company matters for the past couple of days.

Li Qiao lay on her side, her fingers tracing the contours of his face, gently outlining the lines of the man’s cheek.

Eyebrow, ridge of the nose, jawline, Adam’s apple, collarbone...

As she caressed him, the atmosphere started to feel a bit off.

The man’s initially steady breathing gradually became labored, and Li Qiao, with a trembling hand, poked his Adam’s apple not too lightly nor too heavily.

Shang Yu suddenly turned over and pinned her down, burying his face in the crook of her neck and planting a kiss. His tone was slow and husky, "Stirring up trouble first thing in the morning, what do you want to do?"

Li Qiao: "..."

Her fingertips passed through his hair and gave it a couple of rubs, "What time did you come back last night?"

"Two o’clock," Shang Yu murmured against her earlobe, his hand wandering restlessly over her body.

Li Qiao grasped his wrist and shifted it aside, saying with little confidence, "Then you should sleep some more; I’ll go check on Mo Jue..."

Before she could finish her sentence, her hand was caught and pinned under him by the man.

It was truly hot as iron.

Li Qiao wiped her face with one hand and stopped talking.

About half an hour later, Li Qiao finished washing up and left the master bedroom with the man.

At the dining table for breakfast, Luoyu was surprised to see that their lady of the house’s right hand, the one holding the milk cup, was actually trembling.

What’s wrong with it?

After a while, Mo Jue walked into the dining room with two dark circles under his eyes, looking listless.

Studying is so hard, ah, out of twenty fill-in-the-blank questions for Chinese homework, he only got one right, and that was a guess.

...

At ten in the morning, Li Qiao and Shang Yu took Mo Jue and set off on a plane headed to the border.

Inside the cabin, Mo Jue took his school bag to the minibar to continue doing his homework.

Luoyu and Liuyun sat at the back of the cabin, exchanging a few words occasionally, mainly about whether the lady had injured her hand.

In less than three hours, the plane landed at the border airport.

Descending the stairs, there were three off-road vehicles parked up ahead.

Li San, dressed in a black training outfit with one hand on his waist and the other resting on the car’s hood, saw them coming and playfully tapped his cheek with his tongue, "Didn’t you say you’d be on the nine o’clock flight?"

He’d been waiting on the tarmac for over an hour; had the plane not shown up, he would have started to think Li Qiao was fooling him.

Li Qiao, wearing a fisherman’s hat, replied nonchalantly, "It was delayed."

Li San gave her a look that spoke volumes, pursed his lips, and turned his gaze to the tall and sturdy Shang Yu, eventually saying nothing.

Does he look like a fool?

The flight route FA001 of Shang Shaoyan, the South Sea merchant, would only be delayed if the tower had gone mad.

Li San chuckled briefly, and with a flicker in his peripheral vision, he spotted Mo Jue hiding behind Li Qiao.

He raised his eyebrows and squinted, "Who is she?"

Li San had never seen Mo Jue, but that didn’t hinder his judgment; anyone who walked beside Qiaoqiao was likely one of their own.

Li Qiao stepped aside and glanced back at Mo Jue, "Call him Third Brother."

Mo Jue looked intently at Li San, fiddled with her school bag, and called out crisply, "Hello, Third Brother, I’m Mo Jue."

Li San glanced at her, pressed his lips into a line, and nodded slightly, then asked Li Qiao again, "To the factory or Poor People’s Kiln first?"

"The factory."

Li Qiao and Shang Yu shared a vehicle, while Luoyu and Liuyun took Mo Jue in the car behind them.

On the way back to the factory, Li Qiao, looking at the empty passenger seat, asked languidly, "Nan Xin didn’t come?"